Eliza And Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia Review

Hi ForeverBookers, 

Who watched the Royal Wedding earlier? I know that I did. 

I’ve just finished “Eliza And Her Monsters” (after watching all of the Royal Wedding) and I enjoyed it. Certain elements of it weren’t to my liking but overall it was a good story. 

3 Stars!

I read “Eliza And Her Monsters” for a few readathons, again:

* Reading Rivalry, a book with over 300 pages.

* Popsugar 2018 Challenge - A book featuring mental health because Eliza suffers with mental health issues - https://www.popsugar.co.uk/smart-living/Reading-Challenge-2018-44211686

• Book Bingo on Facebook! Eliza And Her Monsters completes the challenge of reading a book that I heard about online, as I first heard of it while watching an unboxing video on YouTube -https://m.facebook.com/events/1442935242483308. 

“Eliza And Her Monsters” is a contemporary YA novel. Eliza is a stay at home, in her bedroom kind of teenage girl. She doesn’t like doing things at school or outside with others. She’s also the author of this webcomic Monstrous Sea, which she writes under a pseudonym, LadyConstellation. When she meets a boy, who wants her to come out of herself and actually experience the world, will she, or will she remain within herself? 

NOTE: Eliza does experience suicidal thoughts so if this bothers you, maybe don’t read it right now. Wait until you’re mentally in a better place. 

Spoilers Below...

 “...unfortunately I do not live in a comic book. I do live a kind of comic book life, though, I guess”, 

is what Eliza says at the start of “Eliza And Her Monsters”, meaning that she thinks her life isn’t much. She wants to live inside her comic book world. She feels she’d be a better person if she was there. 

What “Eliza and Her Monsters” truly is, is a book about overcoming mental health. 

“I do not read comments. Comments are explosives for mental walls, and right now I need those walls up.” 

This is Eliza at the beginning, when she’s just someone who draws and publishes online. She’s already told us that she feels she has no life outside of her comic and this confirms it. If she reads the comments, it’s like she’s opening herself up to opinions and she doesn’t want that. 

“That computer is my rabbit hole; the internet is my wonderland.”

I really like this quote because it demonstrates just how important the internet is to Eliza. She wouldn’t be the Eliza she is without it. I also liked this because within the last month I’ve read “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland”.  

When rainmaker, a Monstrous Sea fan starts talking to her online, she starts to feel different emotions.

“rainmaker laughing feels like winning a lottery”

When she talks to her other online friends she’s known them for a while so it’s easy to talk about the comic and other things. However, with rainmaker it’s like she’s someone special. Eliza hasn’t experienced this before. 

“I do have friends. Maybe they live hundreds of miles away from me, and maybe I can only talk to them through ascreen, but they’re still friends. They don’t just hold monstrous sea together. They hold me together. 

         Max and Emmy are the reason any of this exists.”

This shows just how much Eliza’s online friends mean to her. Without them, she wouldn’t be Eliza, the webcomic creator. When she says “They hold me together”, it’s significant because with Eliza’s mental health, she needs support from friends, even if they’re ones she’s never met. “any of this” could refer to Eliza herself as well as her comic, also, I believe. 

Eliza meets a boy at school, called Wallace. He’s a transfer student who also loves “Monstrous Sea.” 

“I really love Monstrous Sea and it feels like a challenge.” 

This is Wallace writing down his thoughts because he’s a quiet person with a few mental health issues of his own. He’s a fanfiction writer for “Monstrous Sea”, it turns out. Eliza needs to figure out if and when telling Wallace, that she’s the creator of “Monstrous Sea” is what’s best for her.  

Wallace also has a group of friends that he keeps in contact with. Eliza and him go to meet up with them at a couple of points in “Eliza And Her Monsters”. Eliza wonders if they could be her friends, too. 

Wallace has his own problems. “Creative writing isn’t going to get you anywhere” is what his step dad says when Wallace tells him that’s what he wants to do. Wallace needs to ultimately stand on his own feet and tell his step dad that’s what he’s going to do. Can he, though? You’ll have to read to find out.

“Eliza And Her Monsters” also features pages of fanart from Eliza’s comic book, as well as IM chats with her online friends, interspersed throughout the novel. I enjoyed this as it was a slight change of pace. It wasn’t all about reading the text, some of it was about deciphering the images. 

I really appreciated the family presence “Eliza And Her Monsters” had. In soooo many young adult books, the parents either aren’t at all present or they’re evil or they just give everything to they’re children. In “Eliza And Her Monsters” this didn’t happen. The parents were how any real life parent should be, caring but critical of their children when they do something the parents don’t think is right. 

What did I like about “Eliza And Her Monsters”?

• I liked the parental presence throughout. It made the novel very realistic. 

• I liked the change of format. I thought the comic book and IM parts worked well within the story. 

• I liked the short chapters. 

• I thought the portrayal of mental health was good. Eliza sees a therapist to help her sort her issues out. This was very realistic. 

What didn’t I like about Eliza And Her Monsters? 

• I didn’t like how selfish Eliza seemed towards her family. For example, she doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas with her family at one point in the novel. She thinks her comic is far more important. 

• I didn’t like how when Wallace enters the story, all Eliza’s focus is on him and Monstrous Sea. This was disappointing because it didn’t seem all that realistic. Eliza seemed to forget all about her family, who are as I’ve said, present throughout and just worry about his feelings and presence. 

• The story doesn’t represent good sibling bonds. Eliza dislikes how her brothers are only interested in sports. She wishes they were interested in the things that she was interested in. Eliza is selfish, in this respect.

• The story seemed to basic. The plot didn’t have any big twist in it. It was sometimes a little bit boring to read. That’s why it feels like it took me over a week to get through, I think. 

Overall then, I’m giving Eliza And Her Monsters 3 Stars because while I really liked some elements of the story, like the mental health aspect and the parental aspect, I didn’t love other parts. I don’t think it’ll be a reread any time soon! 

What did you think of Eliza And Her Monsters? Did you like it? Did you have some issues with it? If so, what were they? 

Stand by for my next review, coming soon...